CB dead or alive

Better off getting a Ham rig with at least 100 Watts that is opened up for 11 meters, propagation for this band has been brutal the last numbers of years due to the sun in a big sleep, if it wakens up much over the next few years it should hopefully greatly improve things.

As far as I am aware leagal CB in Ireland is only 4 watts and FM ? that wouldn't get you far anyway.

SSB is where it's at, even on my SDRs I don't hear a lot of action on CB but there are occasional openings and it's buzzing for quite some distance.

Get on ebay, there are plenty of old radios that should be suitable.

A Yaesu FT-450 without tuner or the FT-450D with tuner should be good.

Or get the HAM radio license, we need more hams, in Ireland, it's not that hard, bit of study and you can apply for the May exam, it opens up a whole new world + you get on bands that are pretty active and getting contacts in the U.S, Canada, South and Central America isn't difficult, with a good antenna and the right time of day you can get Aisia and Austrailia.

I remember CB in the 90's, never talked on it could only listen on a scanner, there was tonnes of activity, all around the Carlow area, plenty of teens into 20's, girls too it was fun. Then the internet destroyed it.

It's all apps today and social media.

Talking to people though is much more fun.

installer wrote: »

I know it’s a year since the last post on this thread but I just wanted to say that I too am a licensed ham and I decided to buy a cb recently as that is where I started back in the 80’s. I bought a superstar SS6900 radio and Sirio gain master base antenna and set it up yesterday but haven’t heard anyone on it yet, S7 noise level isn’t helping much either. I’m in Galway and would be great to get the hobby back in action again.

If you're a licensed ham why don't you just listen with your Ham radio rather than buy a CB ?

If you listen around 27.555 USB you'll hear Irish CB'ers now and again, you see the Sun is still in it's big sleep but the band does open from time to time, we're supposed to be in the next sun cycle but the sun is still pretty much asleep.

A lot of People use vertical antennas for CB which is fine for Dx but maybe try a dipole or something which might be better for more local coverage ?

Turbohymac wrote: »

Hi. Yes cb is still just about alive down here in cork.. like mad lad agree a good ham radio is miles better than cheap CBS's. Iactually went through a long phase of different types of cheap cb radios. Lincon.etc.but got a new kenwood 570 back in 2000. Absolutely best purchase ever..
But I'm not really interested in chatting local within Ireland .my interest is long distance DX. And exchanging the odd qsl.card.
And no i have absolutely no interest in getting a ham license..
Much nicer people all over the world on the good old 11 metres.
Finally the most important is a good base antenna as high as possible..
Power seems to be everyone's preference but even last night I was listening in on 2 lads having a chat about 60km away and one fellow dropped down his power from 60 to 10 watts and he was still crystal clear .even with my pre amp off he was doing great..
Good hobby ..very addictive.
I also have an icon 706 that I got from a friend a few years back..so I'm now going to throw up a decent vhf aerial as I'm quite close to the coast and hook it up to the 706 as theres lots boats about

It's not difficult getting your ham license, everything you need is on the IRTS site to study, once you have it it opens a lot more options and bands, CB band is challenging to say the least with the current sleeping sun that's hardly waking up even with this new cycle at least with Ham radio you can easily find a band that you can get out on + you can make better use of the radio having more bands.

There's a lot of very nice folk on ham radio too believe it or not, I never get this CB'ers against hams and hams against CB'ers ? I've nothing against CB and glad there's still some activity and I would love if it increased after all it's still radio and a lot more fun than posting rubbish on the likes of FB or boards.ie at least you can hear people and have the craic in a completely different way so many People today just can't understand or know which is really sad.

Turbohymac wrote: »

Yes I agree 100% the CB is superior to the modern technology. But here in Ireland its unfortunately an old man's hobby these days..never heard any young people on it. Unlike Spain and Italy where everyone still seems to utilize the usb.
The skip is certainly not good at present but just before Christmas there was a few very good weeks with near perfect conditions.
Finally as for the cb versus the licenced ham operators..I had a few buddies locally that like myself started out on CB and then went for their license .. well they clearly spelled it out that within the amateur radio licenced group there was a clear indicator that going back to the 11meter band and communicating with the As it was phased the illegal pheasants wasn't allowed..
So my absolute honest take on the radio is come on air respect everyone else and like the many qsl cards that I have from all over the world..
Were not strangers just simply friends that have never met..
It's for this reason I honestly wouldn't ever bother with a license and I would treat licenced operators in a totally different category to the stand alone 11 meter operator.. simply looking out for a bit of skip to make the next distant division..
As already said it now seems an older person's hobby here..I couldn't see my own young lad getting hooked on it..
Cheers

My 5 year old likes tuning the radio and watching the waterfall on the 7300 so you never know, the 6 year old, 7 in May isn't as interested yet, hopefully he'll get more in to it.

If your young lad is older maybe introduce him to some digital modes such as PSK31 or Olivia, they are really fun modes and still allows human contact via keyboard to keyboard chat, it just opens more areas of the hobby and it's not just talking to People via microphone.

As I said, having the license opens up a lot more bands and you don't have to wait for 11m skip, last May when I got the Chameleon MPAS 2.0 I had great fun with the FT-891 contacting Hams in South America as far as Chile on 20m in the evenings over the Summer, it was a challenge of course as big EU stations were hammering me but I got there with a very simple setup, this is what really gives me a buzz not having a big beam and 2 Kw of power, just getting out there with minimalist setup. I certainly wasn't expecting such DX form a portable antenna like that.

I think a lot of Hams are genuinely concerned about loosing their license if someone ratted them out being on 11m, Ireland is a small Island and you are easily identified by anyone familiar with your voice + these days it's too easy record someone and send it to Comreg + there's no real need to be on 11m if you have the Ham license and I certainly don't mean anything bad about that.

Turbohymac wrote: »

Hi again. Mad lad.
Yes I suppose the pity here is that licenced operators are not supposed to transmit on 11metres which clearly creates a big divide between licenced and amateur 11meter. Likewise unlicensed not allowed to stray from 11metres.. again for me even though I would have a much broader spectrum of frequencies on licenced .I honestly prefer to chat away/DX on 11meter and talk to some stations that don't even use a call sign or even know their country division number..
Alas I think in another 10years or so the 11 meter here in Ireland will possibly be extent. But for now theres still a few ears listening around the country..
Regards for now..
29 Ec 001

The problem today is that everyone wants screens, apps and Spotify, Raspberry Pis etc and they wouldn't even be bothered with the hassles of installing an antenna, too much work. Back in the pre internet days there wasn't a lot else to do but it's up to us Older folk to make younger People aware of the wonderful hobby of radio whether it be Ham radio or 11m. My two Boys will hopefully be interested but I can already see how addictive the screens are with youtube and games on the tablet and phone and if they had the choice of playing around with the radio or tablet there's no chance they will choose the radio unless I'm using it and it's outside their limited screen time.

When they're older we'll make up some antennas and get them in the air and they can hear how simple it is to talk with no internet around the world.

I do remember back in the 90s how active CB was with the young folk People my own age and how the internet killed it almost immediately.

I do think it's sad though because Radio stimulates the brain in ways apps and screens just can't, for instance, making up an antenna, building a small radio transmitter for 40m or just getting on the air and seeing how far you can get with little power.

I really do believe it would be incredibly good for secondary school students to get educated on radio and even offer ham radio clubs because there is always a Ham willing to volunteer, it can teach them that without the radio in their mobile devices they are useless, get them talking to the international space station, even getting a few hundred students a year into the hobby would be worth the effort. Without education younger People on Amateur radio, CB etc the won't know it even exists.

Turbohymac wrote: »

All very true..but that's the generations changing in front of our eyes..very difficult for me to even explain the difference of when I was growing up in very rural Ireland..no esb till I was 5. Black and white TV at 6. Landline at 13.
Jesus that was a momentous milestone.
And to try to explain today that most children walked or cycled to school..
No internet. No Netflix. No satellite tv.no central heating..
But back then as children we had way more freedom.
Bring back the 80s..
Definitely beats our current climate..
And yes certainly my small lad won't ever bother climbing a very tall tree with any type of aerial. Definitely too much like work..
Keep the faith and discreetly tune.in now and again on the triple fives..
Who knows I could be wrong and it might pick up again for local contact..
But theres still loads of stations scattered around Ireland that like myself are only interested in the long distance skip..

Perhaps it's time then to arrange some local 11m nets, if you do let me know I will listen in, definitely won't join in for obvious reasons not snobbery at all but this age of recording everything and all that.

I do wish sometimes we could go back to a pre-internet for many reasons. I would love to see Children today be less addicted to screens and schools teach proper electronics and Ham radio and get them ready for taking the ham radio exam. There has to be more to school life than just the normal subjects and books.

It's funny actually my 5 year old likes tuning the old FT-77 more than the 7300 he calls it his radio lol and any time I'm in the shack he wants me to turn it on so he can mess around with it but it's hard for him to tune in SSB for obvious reasons, it's something I am encouraging and hopefully he'll get hooked, the older lad I'm not so sure whether he'll be as interested but I have the panadapter for the 7300 and connect it to the Airspy SDR and I can bring the waterfall up on the big screen which is really convenient and he's more interested in this so maybe if you haven't already get an SDR and see if your Son will play around with that.

If you haven't try PSK31 or Olivia, I like these digi modes. I do dabble in FT8 now an again, it's interesting to see how far you get out and you can use pskreporter to see if the bands are open.

Hopefully the sun will wake up again properly in this new cycle but so far it's not looking good and we could be heading for a grand solar minimum.

Brian Hayden wrote: »

I might just re join FB again and see what it's all about , I am actually considering taking the exam for the operators license, actually studying the material over the past week or so but most if it is common sense to me so far but have learnt some new things aswell.

Yes do get your Ham license because it will open up a whole new world for you, you'll find lots of activity on the ham bands, there's even the digital modes like PSK31 and Olivia I like a lot because you can have keyboard to keyboard chat and Olivia can work with signals you can't even see on the waterfall.

But regarding CB, I'd use the vertical if you want DX but try a dipole maybe for local distances and you might hear better. I think everyone on CB seems to have only a vertical, you can switch between the two antennas.

With the low solar activity the last number of years it certainly doesn't help, particularly with CB frequencies but keep calling CQ because if no one is calling no one can hear and with SDRs today a signal can be spotted almost immediately. We're in a new solar cycle but the sun is still very inactive.

Check out my SDR here http://emeraldsdr1.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

The above SDR should get better NVIS coverage than my other one which is better for DX which you can also use http://emeraldsdr.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

Sure we're all close enough then lol.